Acclaimed San Diego hospitality group CH Projects today announces its second hotel, Baby Grand, opening in early 2025. Situated across from the iconic Hotel Del Coronado in the town center on Orange Avenue, the hotel will be the first design hotel of its kind in two decades in the popular Southern California destination. The $17 million project by award-winning Brooklyn design firm Post Company will feature 31 keys and three new restaurant concepts. The design will thematically reference the area’s coastal setting paired with CH Projects’ signature maximalism, striving to progress the social landscape of San Diego’s distinctive neighborhoods and cultures. CH Projects is behind some of the city’s most acclaimed restaurant and bar destinations, including Morning Glory, Youngblood, Born & Raised and more, as well as the trailblazing Lafayette Hotel and Club, the team’s first hotel project in North Park.
“Coronado is such a unique element of San Diego’s layered persona. We wanted to create a hi-lo gathering place that reflects the island’s storied reputation as a getaway gem of the Southern California coast, while also serving as a social hub and neighborhood amenity for our neighbors,” said Arsalun Tafazoli, CH Projects founder. “I’m enamored with rejecting the “now” – we’re building Baby Grand to lovingly evolve the cultural fabric of my home city, and provide a place for meaningful connections and memorable experiences.”
The hotel will feature a 6,000 square foot al fresco entryway with a to-be-announced bar and dining concept, which will emphasize lush overgrown landscaping, exaggerated rock formations and sculptural water features. Its design will reference the chaotic harmony between nature and the human world, offering an immersive and explorative experience for guests. Two additional concepts will include an oyster bar and an omakase venue.
Baby Grand’s design is an exploration of the tales and tropes of the sun-drenched California dream through the eyes of our consummate host. Our host is a collector of cultures lost, a steward of the past, a hoarder of the relics of glory days. The hotel in turn is a romantic collision of the past and future, a once classic motel caught in the limbo of time, paying homage to the nostalgia of prior days while embracing a distorted future. In the rooms, a massive pearlescent clamshell bed sits in front of scenic wallpapers of former imagined civilizations. Mirrored oversized minibars open to reveal bronze and red glass, a Kubrickian inspired armature of hospitality. The rooms are filled with collected objects, art, sculpture, and antiques. The bathrooms are drenched in custom wallpaper, cut stone floor, decadent marble washstands and freestanding bathtubs.
Just outside the rooms, the once parking lot has been transformed into a jungle, a mirage belonging to a fever dream of delight. Massive palm trees, wild flora and climbing flowering vines have overtaken the grounds. Opposite the hotel, a two-story waterfall cascades down formed rocks and provides a backdrop to the Napoleonic inspired tented bars and structures dotting the property. This urban oasis will be an unannounced all-day restaurant concept offering elaborate fine dining in the outdoor jungle.
Returning to the lobby here a guest may grab a cocktail or coffee under a futurist-inspired awning. Just inside, the intimate reception is a jewel box of art, ephemera, and sculpture. Walls are lined in vintage hand-painted tapestries under a draped ceiling culminating in a Murano light fixture far-oversized for the space. It is a space of palimpsest and storytelling, a warm welcome to the world of Baby Grand. Tap on a sculpture in the corner (for those in the know) and an entrance to Fallen Empire appears, a coveted oyster bar and lounge. The floor is an ornate mosaic of tiled fish and sea creatures while chrome and mirrored walls reflect crushed velvet banquettes and clamshell chairs. The room has been ripped from the cocktail lounges of the late 50s while simultaneously evoking a mirrored closet of a 1980s Versace loft.
For more information on Baby Grand or CH Projects, please visit consortiumholdings.com
Hotel website
Baby GrandOrange AveCoronado, CA 92118United States
